This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
This is a post I wrote up a while back and never published as Kraft/Heinz and other things happened. Anyway, here it is: In December 2011, Leucadia (LUK) bought 79% of National Beef. They explained the purchase as a play on the rising consumption of protein around the world as incomes rise in emerging economies…
I was always curious about COWN; it did an interesting merger with Ramius, an alternative asset management company run by some stars from the 1980’s. I have taken a look at it a few times over the years but never really thought much of it. I don’t know what I think of it now, but…
So I did make it to the Leucadia National (LUK) annual meeting this year. As usual, these aren’t comprehensive notes or anything like that. These are just some loose notes on certain things. I didn’t take detailed notes so some things might be a little off here and there, but I don’t think I…
So after posting my initial look at the merger, a couple of points have been raised. Or I should say one was raised (in the comments section in the previous post) and that lead to another point. One is the issue of dilution. I said that this merger would have a 4.7% or so dilutive effect…
So this is what it comes down to. Leucadia (LUK) buys Jefferies (JEF) and solves some problems with one deal: Succession: since Handler will become CEO of the post-merger Leucadia, succession is no longer an issue. Handler is well regarded and is known to be a very solid, conservative manager. I have no problem with Handler at…
This is just a quick follow-up to my LUK posts; today Fortescue and Leucadia came to an agreement on the 4% notes. People who follow LUK know that FMG insisted that they had a right to issue more royalty notes and dilute LUK and they have been in court fighting this out. Today LUK announced…
This is just some housekeeping stuff for LUK. National Beef is a major purchase and it may be at the center of LUK’s plan to turn it into a fortress entity; a cash flow producing going concern that will generate cash even in bad times and less emphasis on deal-making to create wealth. This is…
This comment by Tom Mara at the Leucadia annual meeting got me really curious about this guy, Arthur Berman, a petroleum geologist who has done extensive research on shale natural gas. I think the comment was that shale gas is uneconomical under $7.00/mcf over the longer term implying that when natural gas prices get back up there,…
I know the annual meeting excitement today is in Florida (J.P. Morgan), but I went to the “boring” one today in midtown. Again, I am not the greatest note-taker and this is not meant to be a comprehensive summary although I tried to jot down most major points. There may also be some errors too,…
2011 Annual Report As usual, the Leucadia National annual report is a great read. This is one of those annual reports that is never a waste of time. They made an exception in this year’s annual report to talk about the sorry state of this country’s politics. It says, “Usually we begin our Letter…